Twenty kilometers a year: On the front lines in Afghanistan

September 17, 2010

In a discussion with Need to Know’s Jon Meacham this week, Tom Gregg of the Center for International Cooperation suggested that the United States will ultimately have to negotiate with the Taliban in order to restore peace and security to Afghanistan. But that idea will likely be difficult, if not impossible, to sell to the American people — if the administration is even willing to try.

Note: This video can only be viewed in the U.S.

After all, the U.S. has been in Afghanistan almost nine years, with the original stated purpose to root out the Taliban as well as Al Qaeda. And now, with 30,000 additional troops in place, sent there this year by President Obama, the fighting goes on, and the casualty rate has risen at a disheartening pace.

With that in mind, we bring you a report from southern Afghanistan, on the front lines of Helmand and Kandahar provinces. There, Sean Smith, a reporter from London’s Guardian newspaper, embedded with a small specialist unit of U.S. parajumpers and marines: Lima Company, third battalion, first regiment. The marines you’re about to see were patrolling out of forward operating base Karma, pushing south to secure an area towards the town of Safar Bazaar in Helmand province, thought to be an insurgency stronghold. Smith brought back some incredible images of the conflict, which are violent, dramatic and at times graphic.

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Comments

Anonymous

The original idea of wiping out Taliban and eliminating Al Qaeda both failed. That much is obvious.
More to the point it ignores a simple reality that the Pastun ( tribe) are a majority population especially in southern Afghanistan And critically many ( a very significant majority) of them are either active Taliban or passive supporters of the Taliban.
The war and current strategy is therefore fundamentally flawed.
Add to the above the significant Pastun population in Pakistan’s FATA and you have another element of why The Taliban cannot be defeated in Afghanistan… if they ever were they would simply be replaced by Migrants from Pakistan, and is why Pakistani forces/politicians are very careful what they actually do.
Fix the Kashmir problem between Pakistan and India.
Although apparently unrelated the most important step to reduced terrorism is the resolution of the Palestinian Israeli issue and a complete Palestinian state, with 1967 borders for them and Israelis.
Guest 5

Need to Know is a production of Creative News Group (CNG) in association with WNET. Marc Rosenwasser is Executive Producer. Need to Know is made possible by Bernard and Irene Schwartz, Mutual of America, Citi Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Foundation, Margaret A. Cargill Foundation, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS.